The Doctrine of Precedent and The Rule of Law

The doctrine of precedent states that all courts bind all lower courts, and some courts, at least to some extent, also bind themselves. Thus the main discussion of the doctrine is to identify as precisely as possible the extent of the independent discretion available to judges to interpret and apply the law on a case-by-case basis as there is constant tension between the concepts of separation of powers and the rule of law which requires that we should be, to some extent, able to predict the legal consequences of our conduct with some degree of certainty... READ MORE